Did You Know . . . ? . . . that
Congressman Henry Allen Cooper (R-Wis.), who was born in Spring Prairie,
moved to Burlington as a child, and grew up here, and after whom Cooper
School is named, was one of only three members of the U.S. House of
Representatives to rise on April 6, 1917, to tell the Congress of the
horrors of war and to ask the Congress to hesitate before it voted the
United States into the First World War. The other two were Speaker of the
House Champ Clark (D-Mo.) and House Majority Leader Claude Kitchin (D-N.C.).
Once the country engaged in the war, however, no House members were more
active in supporting the government and helping the U.S. and its allies win
the war than Congressman Cooper, who had been a teenager at the time of the
Civil War, and the other two Members.
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President’s MessageSummer is
moving along fast toward its final stages. The renovation of our Museum is
also in the final stages and the many hours of planning and labor are
starting to show great results.
Looking back to the past is part of being an historian. Looking to the
future is a critical part of sustaining our past. It is so easy to tear down
a building and put up a parking lot. I always try to promote community
involvement by reminding residents to partake in civic events and social
projects and enjoy the many rewards it can offer.
Burlington is a great community with many fine citizens and activities. I
know the early settlers of the area would be proud to see the way our
community has progressed by continuing the planning and hard work that has
passed down through generations.
Enjoy the rest of the summer season.
Dennis Tully
Veterans Terrace Takes Place of Veterans Memorial Building
After several years of declining use and "aging problems," Burlington's
1960s Veterans Memorial Building has been transformed into Veterans Terrace.
The grand opening of the attractive new building was held Sunday, August 30.
Included in the new building is a World War I display that includes several
artifacts and photos from the Historical Society's collection.
Below is the Veterans Memorial Building as it appeared in 1971 and the
Veterans Terrace in September 2009.
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Christmas Program on December 13, 2009, to
Feature "Christmas Tree Ship" Author The Society will present a
Christmas program on Sunday, December 13, 2009, at 1:30 p.m., featuring
Rochelle M. Pennington, award-winning author of "The Christmas Tree Ship,"
"The Historic Christmas Tree Ship," "An Old-Fashioned Christmas," and other
books.
The location of the program has not yet been determined.
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Early Industry Office
Building Razed Here (This article is from the Standard-Press
of December 6, 1956).
The passing of an era in Burlington history was completed recently, when
the building, most recently used as a Pure Oil service station, was razed a
couple of weeks ago to make way for a new station along the new highway. The
building at the corner of Milwaukee avenue and Grove street served as the
office of the Burlington Brick and Tile company.
The razed building was the last remnant of a Burlington industry that was
founded in December, 1886, when the Burlington Brick and Tile company was
incorporated. The capital of the new firm was $30,000. The first share of
stock was issued to the firm's first president, Edwin Sumpter, and was dated
January 1, 1887. Dr. A. L. Buchan was the first secretary of the firm.
Other persons who associated with the firm in the early years were
Stephen Bull, Samuel Buchan, Matthew Dawson, William Meadows, William
Bristol, George Meadows, and Edward Brook, father of Mrs. Howard Newell, who
succeeded Dr. Buchan as president.
Brick Used Here
Brick manufactured by the firm was used in the construction of St. Mary
Catholic church and St. John the Divine Episcopal church as well as in the
construction of the Meadows' homes. Primary product of the firm, in its
early years, was a white brick which was shipped throughout the country. In
later years tile used in drainage projects became the primary product of the
firm.
All of the clay used in the manufacture of the brick and tile was
obtained locally. The clay pit was located across the road from the kilns
and the building where the brick and tile were formed and partially dried.
This building measured 98 by 40 feet and was three stories high with a
stone basement. Presses and machinery for forming the brick and tile were in
the basement and the upper three stories were used to store the finished
product until it was ready to be fired in the three kilns.
Clay Pit
The clay was dug from the ground on the present location of Athletic park
(now Beaumont Field) accounting for the difference in ground level
between it and the surrounding ground today. The clay was hauled across what
is now Milwaukee avenue in two-wheel dump carts drawn by horses. Barns to
house the horses were located on the present site of Weis Implement company
(site in 2009 of Ketterhagen Memorials).
Three large kilns fired with soft coal were used to harden the brick and
tile. The largest of these had a capacity of two carloads of bricks and the
two smaller ones had a capacity of one carload each. These kilns were shaped
like Eskimo igloos and were connected by underground tunnels to a large
common chimney. Each kiln contained five or six fire pockets. These fire
pockets were constructed so that the heat was forced to be drawn through the
products in the kiln to the bottom and out through the underground tunnel
and the common chimney by the tremendous draft created by the tall chimney.
Soft coal used in the kilns was purchased at about $1.25 a ton and the
rate of pay received by the 12 to 14 employees was in the neighborhood of
$40 per month.
Operations were continued by the firm until the late 1920s when the
demand for the particular brick and tile manufactured were no longer in
sufficient demand to make the operation practical. Manager during the final
years of operation was Howard Newell who took over following World War I and
the death of William Meadows. The property was purchased by Al Jung in 1930.
Salvaged 100,000 Bricks
Jung had planned to make an amusement center of the large building but
found it impractical. When he razed the kilns and the main building, he
salvaged some 100,000 bricks, many of which he was able to sell to people
looking for unusual colors. Many of these bricks had been burned in the
firing process producing unusual colors which people wanted for decorative
purposes.
The final chapter of the firm was written in April of 1947 when the
corporation was dissolved. Progress dictated the removal of the final
vestige of the company from the Burlington scene when the relocation of
Milwaukee avenue caused the removal of the office building to make way for a
new service station on the corner.
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The Burlington Brick & Tile Co., shown above circa 1900, was near
Echo Lake on the corner of Milwaukee Ave. and Grove St. where Rice
Liquor and Bruiser's are now located. Shoreline Gardens Drive-In
and the "new" Pure Oil Station were on that property in the 1957 photo
below.
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Wisdom Through The Ages
Contributed by Priscilla Crowley
I recently celebrated my 62nd birthday and while that is not a major
happening for anyone except myself, it has made me pause and reflect on the
things I have seen and done throughout the decades. In the big scheme of
things, I have not made a major "splash" in the world. I have been a very
small frog in a small little pond. The ripples I have created in my pond are
not huge but nevertheless they have and will affect a fair number of people.
I suppose it is normal, as one gets older, to think more and more about the
days gone by – our younger years when things were different and we were
different. Life nowadays has gotten very complicated and moves at an
extremely fast pace. Gone are the days when one day would melt into another
and summer was one endless string of perfect days with nothing in particular
to do.
Remember waking on a soft summer morning with the sun shining and birds
singing outside your bedroom window? Remember what it was like to have a
soft breeze gently moving the curtains to and fro and the special smell of a
summer morning? Or waking to a soft, gray day with a summer rain pattering
against the window? Or how about watching nature at her finest when a sudden
summer thunderstorm erupted with the booming sound of thunder and jagged
lightning streaking across the sky? Or how about lying in the cool grass at
twilight and watching the stars as they appeared one by one across the
velvet night sky? Do you remember catching lightning bugs in a jar and
thinking they would last forever? Small little beacons of light lazily
drifting through the yard at twilight and, along with the light show,
listening to the crickets as they merrily chirped their way through the
night.
Did you ever beg your mom to let you "camp out" in the backyard? Remember
all the stuff you just had to have out there for your camping trip? We used
to take blankets and pin them to the clothesline and stretch them out and
anchor them with large rocks. Then you had to have the essentials – every
blanket you owned, pillows, flashlights, food, a radio, magazines and I
think once my brother even took a record player out there and ran an
extension cord to the house so it would work. Not much sleeping ever took
place but a lot of giggling and story telling did. How much fun it was to
lay out there in the "wilds" of the backyard with your friends and know that
even though you were "camping out" you were still perfectly safe and Mom and
Dad were not too far away if you should need them.
Remember waking up one day and noticing that summer was giving way to
fall? Suddenly the air had a crisper, sharper smell to it. No longer did the
morning breeze have that special smell of summer. With the advent of fall, I
remember saying a reluctant good-bye to summer but looking forward in eager
anticipation to what fall would bring – the start of a new school year, a
return to a set routine, a chance to catch up with school friends and a
whole new set of adventures. Remember waking up in the morning and noticing
the change in the way everything looked? Suddenly the leaves on the trees
were turning bright colors – and your world turned from something green and
lush-looking to a world that was bright and colorful. The air took on a new
quality and the sunlight that dappled through the trees had an extra
brightness to it. I don't know how to explain it but there is a difference
between summer sunlight and fall sunlight. It makes you feel alive and gives
you new energy and makes you feel like you can accomplish anything you set
your mind to. Then, after the leaves have all fallen from the trees, fall
takes on a different look, suddenly it is not bright and colorful – it has a
more somber look, more like a world without color, sort of like a black and
white photo compared to the rich colors of summer and early fall. Autumn
rainstorms are cold and the rain tends to beat harshly against the windows
driven by the gusty winds of autumn – not like the gentle pattering of the
soft summer rain. These dull days of fall have you hurrying from one place
to the next, longing for the warmth and comfort of home. People, like Mother
Nature, are preparing their nests in anticipation of winter.
Remember how you felt when the first snowfall came? Even as an adult,
that first snowfall is special. Flakes float gently to the ground coming
faster and thicker and soon the ground is white, covering the somber
trappings of late fall and making everything clean and beautiful again. I
know that as an adult I do not appreciate snow like I did when I was
younger. Then it was this magical stuff that meant endless days of skating
and sledding and building snow forts and snow ball fights – the list is
never ending. As an adult it means things like, "Not again!" More gas for
the snow blower – more salt for the sidewalks – more cold, more wet, icky
snow. When will it end? I personally feel that Christmas was invented to
help take the drudge out of winter. Christmas is a bright spot that gives
our thoughts a different direction other than thinking about the weather. It
helps to bring out the child in us once more instead of trapping us in the
adult world for the whole of winter. It helps to give us an appreciation of
family and what's important and to realize that even though winter will be
with us for a few months yet, spring will come to us as it does every year.
Winter is a time of quiet and reflection, a time for staying indoors with a
good book and watching out the window as the winter winds howl around the
chimney and snowflakes drift slowly to the ground. It seems to go on forever
but it doesn't really – spring always comes and part of our special
enjoyment of spring is knowing that no matter what – spring will eventually
show up.
The first spring day has nothing to do with the calendar. It's the first
day you open the door and smell that sweet, special smell of an early spring
morning. There is nothing like it. It is that curious combination of damp
earth, a fresh breeze, green shoots popping up, birds chirping away in the
early morning light – there it is – life renewing itself for the entire
world to see. Spring is a new beginning – a renewal for us all – it gives us
hope and a new outlook on our world. We look at things differently in the
spring – what once seemed dull and lifeless takes on new meaning and color.
No matter how old we become, spring gladdens the heart and makes us all feel
young again. People smile more and I believe have a greater appreciation of
the world around them. The budding of the trees, the first robin, the first
tender green shoots of tulips or daffodils, the first day that is warm
enough to hang laundry on the line or the first day you can walk outside
without your winter coat are all special. These are all simple things but
important milestones in the adventure of life. None of the things I have
talked about have value in a monetary sense – these things cannot be bought
or sold but their worth is far above any treasure you could name. They are
food for our minds and spirits – they are part of what makes us who we are.
Remember the things in your past that have made you the person you are,
be proud of the scars life has left you with, share the memories and the
scars, the good times and the bad. It's nice to have "things" to pass on to
future generations but more important than "things" are memories – don't be
stingy – share!
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It Happened in 1909 – A Hundred Years Ago
• Burlington started paving city streets – with bricks.
•The Interurban electric rail line reached Burlington from
St. Martins near Milwaukee.
•St. Charles bought the Voorhees & Fiske planing and sorghum
mill on Conkey Street as the site for a second Catholic Church in
Burlington.
•The Bank of Burlington building, now occupied by May's
Insurance, was built on the site of the former Veteran Saloon building on
the corner of Pine and Chestnut Streets. The Veteran Saloon building was
moved to the site now occupied by the Charcoal Grill.
•Fire wiped out the Jefferson Street factory where Al-Vista
panoramic cameras were manufactured.
•William F. Gill built a new brick livery barn on Mill
Street, replacing his wooden barn. Motor Parts Co. NAPA now occupies the
site.
•John McCarthy obtained the agency for the Wells-Fargo
Express Co. and was awarded the contract for carrying mail between the two
railroad depots and the post office.
• The Burlington Gun Club was organized.
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Voorhees & Fiske Planing and Sorghum
Mill - 1898.
Now site of St. Charles Catholic Church on Conkey Street.
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